Note: Windows users should ensure that there are no spaces in the complete tomcat path as this causes errors with JSF tools in SakaiGOOD: C:\opt\tomcat\, C:\sakaistuff\installs\tomcat\BAD: C:\program files\tomcat\, C:\opt\apache tomcat 8.0.43\

Instead of starting with an empty database you can add the flag -Dsakai.demo=true in addition to the others shown here. During your first Tomcat launch it will populate your database with test data (students, courses, etc). Once the data has been created remove this flag for subsequent Tomcat launches. Be advised that this flag will not trigger on a database with data already in it so you must make this choice during the initial setup. It should also be noted that without this flag one will not be able to create any course sites in Sakai unless Academic Term, Subject, Course, and Section data is manually added to the "cm_" tables in the database.

Note

We recommend using -Djava.util.Arrays.useLegacyMergeSort=true until this issue can be resolved -

Improve startup speed

You can improve startup speed under Tomcat 8 significantly.

Edit the file conf/context.xml and add this JarScanFilter block to the <Context>

Code Block

<JarScanner>
<!-- This is to speedup startup so that tomcat doesn't scan as much -->
<JarScanFilter defaultPluggabilityScan="false"
defaultTldScan="false"
tldScan="jsf-impl-*.jar,jsf-widgets-*.jar,myfaces-impl-*.jar,pluto-taglib-*.jar,sakai-sections-app-util-*.jar,spring-webmvc-*.jar,standard-*.jar,tomahawk*.jar,tomahawk-*.jar"/>
</JarScanner>

After the JSF 2.3 migration, users may update the tomcat configuration to this one:

Code Block

<JarScanner>
<!-- This is to speedup startup so that tomcat doesn't scan as much -->
<JarScanFilter defaultPluggabilityScan="false"
defaultTldScan="false"
tldScan="jsf2-widgets-*,jar,javax.faces-*.jar,jsf-impl-*.jar,jsf-widgets-*.jar,myfaces-impl-*.jar,pluto-taglib-*.jar,sakai-sections-app-util-*.jar,spring-webmvc-*.jar,standard-*.jar,tomahawk*.jar,tomahawk-*.jar"/>
</JarScanner>